Dave Meltzer Assesses WWE's Rumored Strategy Against AEW All Out, Worlds End

While nothing has been announced just yet, rumors are heating up that indicate WWE intends to run a premium live event against AEW All Out next month. Then, later this year, the company might end up moving the December edition of WWE Saturday Night's Main Event so that it broadcasts directly against AEW Worlds End.

Writing in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer stated that WWE will soon announce a PLE for September 20 in Indianapolis, Indiana, headlined by John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar. Meanwhile, All Out is scheduled to take place that same night in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

AEW may move All Out to the afternoon to avoid directly competing with WWE, but that could be complicated by the fact that WWE is waiting so long to make the event official. If AEW decides to stick to the evening slot, Meltzer believes the Cena-Lesnar match will hurt viewership, but it's not clear by how much. Should WWE be able to draw away 20,000 buys, that would result in a roughly $600,000 loss in revenue for AEW, which Meltzer stated isn't much in a world where AEW makes $180 million each year from its media rights deal.

"The one thing this shows, for whatever reason, is that the Nick Khan and Paul Levesque power duo care a lot more about AEW than Vince McMahon did, and Vince wanted the thing out of business pretty badly from the start," Meltzer wrote.

If WWE successfully moves the final SNME this year from December 13 to December 27, they'll be facing a great deal more competition, and not just from AEW. Meltzer reported that there is an NFL game streaming exclusively on Peacock that night. That could prevent NBC from wanting to move SNME, especially if the event will truly feature Cena's final match, as rumored.